


The Ties that Bind

by hopeless_romantic_spoonie



Category: Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)
Genre: Blood Drinking, Dirty Talk, Dry Humping, F/M, Landlord Adam, Language, Light Angst, Might add more chapters, quarantine fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:40:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25518190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hopeless_romantic_spoonie/pseuds/hopeless_romantic_spoonie
Summary: Lily had thought herself shit out of luck when she couldn't make the rent for her half of the duplex she shared with her odd, reclusive landlord, Adam. Jobs weren't exactly easy to come by in the middle of a global pandemic. When Adam offered her an intriguing exchange that allowed her to keep her mostly intact roof over her head, how could she say no?
Relationships: Adam (Only Lovers Left Alive)/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 37





	The Ties that Bind

**Author's Note:**

> This is for justthehiddles' "Damnit Jim, I’m A Vampire, Not A Landlord Fic Frenzy" challenge on Tumblr! I chose the prompt: 1. Your landlord is a vampire, so he offers you a deal. You can pay your rent in money… or in blood.
> 
> Further chapters may be added as the muse (or some of my more insistent friends) demands! I hope you enjoy!

There are almost no good reasons for anyone to knock on someone’s door at two in the morning.

Which was why when loud, resounding knocks echoed through her apartment, Lily stiffened in the middle of her messy bed. Her already quiet music turned off with the slow close of the warm laptop on her ample bare thighs. Maybe it was just some drunk looking for a friend and banging on the wrong door. Maybe it was just a lost delivery driver. Late-night munchies were a plight felt by all at one point or another, right?

The knocks practically rattled her teeth the second go around.

Or maybe it was someone hell-bent on breaking down the damn door.

Armed with her phone in one hand and her vibrator--it just so happened to be the nearest blunt and slightly heavy object--Lily crept toward the door and peered through the peephole.

A mane of thick, coarse black hair blocked any view of who could be on the other side, but she knew only one person with skin as pale as frigid snow and an attitude to match.

Hiding her hot pink vibrator behind her back, she opened the door and leaned against it, frowning at the nocturnal landlord. “Something wrong, Ad-”

“Your music,” he groused plainly. “It’s too loud and fucking awful at that.”

She swore internally; he shouldn’t have been able to hear that. It was the lowest she’s ever played it and she had been sure as hell that it wouldn’t have reached the apartment beside hers, but she’d obviously been wrong. She’d barely been able to make out Panic! At The Disco over the monotonous typing and retyping of her resume into various online forms, but he’d always had sensitive ears. On more than one occasion something as innocuous as a dropped shampoo bottle in the shower was enough to have him storming up to her apartment, grumbling that he couldn’t possibly work in such adverse conditions.

But the rent was cheap, the one-bedroom duplex somehow not infested with creepy crawlies, and, admittedly, Adam wasn’t exactly hard to look at.

Especially when he showed up in tight black jeans and an open, striped robe as he did now.

Used to his gruff ways, she arched a fine brow and lifted the hand holding her cell phone in a half-hearted apology. “My bad. I’ll use some headphones. You doing okay?”

Small bits of conversation passed back and forth had been the basis of their quasi-friendship. A greeting exchanged in passing, a piece of mail given to the proper receiver, or an odd comment thrown her way when he came over to collect the rent--he _always_ preferred cash, and she _always_ seemed to lose track of time and forget to slip it into his mailbox as he preferred.

“Fine.” He paused, turned to walk away, and then stopped to turn back. Wide, dark-rimmed eyes dragged up and down her pajama-clad body before studying her face. “You’re hiding something.”

Definitely not the vibrator behind her back, _nope_. Lily always stood with her hip awkwardly tilted out to the side and one arm twisted behind her. Shaking her head with a shrug, she feigned innocence. “Nope. It’s just late, and I’m a little sleepy. You do know what sleep is, right?”

The slight narrowing his eyes and a noncommittal grunt were his only responses before he left her to stare at the play of faded, orange light on the denim hugging his ass.

Sometimes they talked more, tossed a few jokes and snarky comments back and forth while peppering in details about their lives, but oftentimes they talked less. Over the year Lily had lived there, she’d pieced together what little she knew of her reclusive landlord, which wasn’t much: he was practically nocturnal, he never had any visitors over to his apartment, he liked the smell of the couscous she made but never wanted any, he absolutely hated loud music, and he was very prompt in retrieving the monthly rent.

Which was why she wasn’t surprised when that same knock rattled her thin apartment walls two weeks later. Seven o’clock sharp, Adam was right on time to collect the envelope that she did not have. _Fuck._

Like many, the pandemic had affected her in multiple ways. At first she was one of the lucky ones, still working at her job as social media manager for a dental office from her bedroom, leaving her home only for groceries before scurrying back into her sanctuary once again. It was repetitive and boring, sure, but it was money and security. That was more than most had.

Until she didn’t.

_”Hey, Lil? It’s Dave.”_

_Lily stood over her breakfast cooking on the stove and stirred the eggs with one hand, propping the phone in between her shoulder and ear. “Hey Dave! What’s up?”_

_His heavy sigh made her almost drop the rubber spatula in her hand._ Oh no. __

_“Listen, Lils, people are afraid to leave their houses, they aren’t making appointments, Tina is pretty sure she can run the Facebook on her own…”_

_His voice barely reached her ears through the drum of her panicked heartbeat slamming against her ribcage. She barely heard his too cheery “Hopefully it’s just temporary!” before the line cut out._

Her need to pay rent was _not_ temporary. And she doubted the man behind the impatient stare that uncomfortably settled on her face would even allow for a temporary extension as she scrambled to dig up the money from somewhere.

“Adam!” Too peppy. Fuck. She cleared her throat and tried again, awkwardly rubbing her thumb over the brass handle of her door. “Hey, um-”

“It’s the first.”

Her teeth captured her bottom lip and dug in, and she caught his black-ringed eyes lingering on the movement. Enough men had watched her curves sway in tight jeans or a short skirt for her to recognize the hunger behind that look. Adam watched her like he wanted to devour her. Color her underwear instantly ruined. _Focus._ “Shit! It is? I forgot. The days are all blurred together lately.”

Unimpressed, he nodded, just enough so that several locks of unruly midnight hair covered one eye, and thrust his gloved hands into the pockets of his dark skinny jeans. His unblinking stare clearly asked Lily what she was going to do about her own mistake.

 _Stall._ “I can run down to the ATM real quick?” Her shoulder lifted in a silent addition to her question, hoping to sell her off the cuff, half-assed plan. If it worked there’d be time to scramble for a solution later. “There’s a limit, so I might have to go to a few, but I can get it to you later?”

“Alright,” he agreed, strutting away with one hand still wedged into the impossibly tight back pocket of his jeans. How in the world did he manage to fit anything in there? The denim was practically molded to his impressively round ass. Just enough to sink her teeth in-

Before those thoughts could continue down the lonely and heated path that led to her making use of the vibrator standing guard on her bedside stable, Lily shut herself back in her apartment and set about working on a plan to suddenly drum up a few hundred dollars from absolutely nowhere.

And hours later, when she decided that selling an organ on the black market would probably cause more harm than good and that few people would want her long, stick-straight auburn hair, Lily trudged over to Adam’s side of the duplex to lay her dignity at his feet and beg for him to have pity on her. Curiously enough, when she pounded her fist on his door, his answering shout of “Go away!” sounded as if it came directly from the other side of the flimsy barrier.

What was curiouser still was that he didn’t even cuss her out when he violently yanked open the door to her insistent knocking. But the intensity of his silent stare behind wide, blown pupils did force Lily to take a staggering step away from him. Which, of course, caused her to trip over the flip-flops she had slipped on to make the trek next door and promptly fall on her ass.

The rough concrete bit into her hands which caught her before her head could smack against the ground. Biting out curses under her breath, she made to drag herself with as little poise as she could muster back to her feet; Adam was there before she could even shift her weight, grabbing her wrist and hauling her up as if she weighed no more than his worn robe fluttering gently in the midsummer’s breeze.

“Adam?” The alarm and confusion that raised her voice dramatically in pitch could not be helped. He stared at the scrapes on her palms with such rapt attention that Lily couldn’t move even if she wanted to.

From the way that his nose just barely brushed the edge of her hand and his entire body tightened as he loomed over her, Lily realized that she very much did not _want_ to move.

Just when she was about to step closer to him, taste the hunger that dragged his tongue along his lower lip, he roughly shoved her hand away and disappeared behind the slam of his door.

“What the fuck?”

Clearly dismissed, Lily trudged back to her place and slipped inside, washing the grit and dirt from her hands before going back to her seemingly futile attempts at scrounging up some extra cash for rent money.

Just when she’d settled back onto her bed with her laptop’s frustratingly unhelpful money making google results in front of her, slow, almost hesitant knocks made their way to her through her quiet apartment.

“Coming!” she called quietly, glancing at the clock in confusion. Who would want her at such a late hour?

“Adam?” Fine red brows furrowed as she stared at the clearly uncomfortable man standing outside of her doorway.

Indecision warred within him for a moment, his eyes shifted back to the stairwell before dragging down her body to linger on the barely decent thin cotton shorts she wore to sleep in. Just when she was about to give up on him saying anything and step back to close the door on her eerily silent landlord did he speak softly.

“May I come in?”

Confused and concerned, she made way for him to stalk around her before quietly shutting the door against the opportunistic mosquitos and thick humidity that longed to enter into her cool apartment. When she turned and walked into the combined kitchen and living space Adam could be found standing beside the couch, his arm crossed over his now-buttoned shirt to hold up his elbow, allowing his finger to run back and forth over his bottom lip thoughtfully.

The disheveled man did not match the rest of her apartment filled with secondhand and cheap make-it-yourself furnishings. Dark and brooding, clearly conflicted about something, he stood out against the colorful mismatched throw pillows and crocheted afghan adding a touch of warmth to the bare space. Decorations were costly; Lily preferred to spend her money on the hundreds of books that lined an entire wall in her already cramped bedroom.

“What’s-”

“You do not take any medication, drink alcohol, or use any recreational drugs.” It was not a question.

Lily leaned her weight onto one leg and crossed her arms with the furrow of her brow. “Um, what?”

The surly landlord turned to face her with a small furrow between his thick brows. “You haven’t had a sexual partner in months and you do not have any diseases or illnesses.”

“Excuse me?” Indignation prickled over her skin. The fucking nerve of some people. What did he know?

As if reading her mind, Adam unfolded his arm from his chest to rap against the wall behind him. The length of his arm beneath his wrinkled black shirt drew her attention before his snark snapped her dark brown eyes back to his face. Was that a smug smile tugging on his thin lips?

“The walls are very thin, shit zombie craftsmanship,” he rolled his eyes. “Now, am I wrong?”

Embarrassment colored her clear, fair skin. Her big toe dug into the thick rug beneath her feet as she drummed up whatever dignity she had left to mutter out, “No.”

The unnerving quiet that stretched between them stretched for an eternity. There had been a reason why he had knocked on her door at two in the morning, but when she studied what little of his face she could see behind his thick, coarse hair, indecision furrowed his brow as he looked around her sparsely decorated home. He appeared perfectly content with allowing the evening to continue on despite the silence wrapping around them so thickly that Lily thought she might choke on it, but she was not.

“Spit it out, Adam.” Her tone softened and she picked at the chipping grey polish on her nails absentmindedly, “It’s late.”

Resignation dropped his shoulders and he sank heavily into the secondhand, worn brown leather couch behind him. “You’re going to want to sit down for this.”

As if that was supposed to be reassuring? Why was he acting so weird? Well, weirder than usual; Lily had a feeling no one had ever accused Adam of being _normal_. “I’m good here.”

“Sit,” he barked, all of the kindness lost from his rough, accented voice.

That was enough to startle Lily into action, quickly going over to the couch to curl up against the other armrest. Her arms wrapped around her knees as she pulled them protectively to her chest.

“To begin with, have you found another source of income?”

Suddenly she was much more interested in the spidering crack in the wall behind him than his direct, unwavering gaze. “Um...no.”

Adam ran a hand through his hair--demonstrating how it was much softer than it appeared by how it flowed through his long, elegant fingers--and sighed heavily. “I have a proposition for you. You do not have to accept, but doing so will benefit us both.”

Hackles raised in goosebumps over Lily’s skin as she hugged her thick thighs tighter against her thin, oversized t-shirt. She clenched her jaw and all but growled out, “Look, asshole, if you think that I’m going to fuck you for rent you-”

“Nothing like that, no.” A spark gleamed in his eye to match the slight curl of the corners of his thin lips. “Although you will definitely wish I was fucking you when I’m finished with you.”

“Excuse me?!” Lily rose and pointed at the door. “If I didn’t make myself crystal fucking clear, I am not-”

He silenced her with the rapid unfolding of his long, lean body from the couch to tower over Lily. The strength he imparted in his silence commanded her quiet attention, freezing her bare feet to the cheap beige carpet.

“I’m asking for something else in exchange for paying your rent. I need you to listen to me, allow me to explain everything, and then you can ask all the questions you need to. Got it?”

Curiosity won out and she backed up until her knees buckled against the couch, forcing her to plop gracelessly down. “I make no promises.”

He groaned quietly and sighed. “Of course you don’t. I’m just going to go ahead and say it: I’m a vampire.”

Laughter bubbled up from deep inside Lily and she clutched her soft stomach with one hand while the other slapped her knee once. He _had_ to be kidding. “Oh my god! I needed that laugh!”

But just through the blur of her tear-filled eyes, she caught Adam’s mouth opening, revealing a set of sharp fangs protruding from his canines. The laughter wracking her body abruptly ended as she stared at the man--no, vampire--in shock that turned her blood to ice in her veins.

 _Would he like that?_ Could he hear her heart pounding against her ribcage? Had he smelled the blood from the shallow scrapes? That would explain his reaction to her scraped hands earlier, but still.

He silenced her jaw dropping to voice her stubborn disbelief with another tidbit of proof, settling back onto the couch so quickly that she wasn’t sure if she’d even seen him move at all. One second he was standing and the next he was sitting, legs spread and long fingered hands splayed over the tight denim encasing his thighs.

A high pitched tone sounded in her ears. Mental static crackled between them as she attempted to process the supernatural man watching her with that same devouring intensity as the fingertips of her left hand ran over the rough, raw flesh on her right. _Because he_ does _want to eat you, dumbass._

Adam must have been talking to her, trying to get through to her through the cacophony of thoughtless panic commanding her attention. His thin, expressive lips moved to form incoherent words as his concerned face filled the entirety of her vision.

As if pulled through water, his speech slowly began to make sense.

“Breathe, Lily. You can’t pass out now. Good, I think you’re with me again.”

Had his eyes always been so fascinating? Stormy blue caught between the darkest black, barely visible for the width of his pupils at her open hands that fell to rest beside her bare feet. Squinting slightly revealed a scarce amount of brown flecks to break up the thrilling seascape threatening to pull her into their tantalizing depths. She’d happily drown in that captivating ocean if he’d only allow her the opportunity.

Wasn’t that what he was doing right now?

“Does it hurt?” 

The hesitant question was the first, obvious step toward the implied exchange between them: her blood for her apartment. He would get fed, if that was the right word, by the same blood that pounded in her veins, and she wouldn’t have to sleep on the streets.

“It does.”

Her apprehension and fear must have shown somewhere on her pallid face because he quickly leaned forward and rubbed his thumb over her bare knee. For someone without a beating heart-- _did his heart beat_ \--he was surprisingly warm to the touch. The callouses she expected from the occasional, odd notes of various instruments that filtered in through their shared walls. The tenderness beneath the touch shocked her the most, completely at odds with the gruff exterior he often presented to the world.

“Only for the first moment, and then you will have never felt better.”

 _Oh yeah._ His promise of her pleasure returned to her scattered thoughts. Would it really feel that good? Anything had to feel better than her vibrator, right? When was the last time that she’d actually _touched_ a person? Months? His thumb might as well have been stroking through the slick heat between her legs for the intimacy it offered.

It wasn’t like blood and plasma donations hadn’t been on her list of ways to boost her bank account. Wasn’t this basically the same thing? Except with an extremely hot vampire who didn’t know how to properly button a shirt and not some stranger in bright blue gloves in a sterile room that smelled of citrus cleansing solution that burned her nose? Maybe he could still get her a cookie from her pantry afterwards, to sweeten the deal…

“I’m not going to die or become one of you, right?” Her fingertips traced over the backs of his hands, tracing tendons that flexed with the curl of his fingers.

A short exhale accompanied the slow shake of his head as he leaned back into the couch once more, offering her space to breathe without pulling his hand away from her curious touch. “No, I will control myself. I’ve had a lot of practice. And you’d only become “one of me”-,” his nose wrinkled in mocking disdain, “-if I wanted you to. My drinking from you alone won’t do that.”

Did she have any other option? Her racing mind could think of nothing else. And the thought of those lips closing over her skin, his eyes fluttering closed in satisfaction from _her_ and her alone, interested Lily more than she cared to admit. She lifted her wrist to him and nodded too rapidly, hoping that she appeared brave and confident despite the fear clawing up her throat.

Chocolate brown eyes blinked open--when had she closed them?--at the overwhelmingly sensitive sensation of his lips brushing against the thin skin of her wrist. He nipped and kissed a slow trail along her forearm, folding his lean torso over the pillows separating them, before nuzzling his nose just before the crease of her elbow. 

Unable to draw a breath through the anticipation wrapping tightly around her heaving chest, she murmured hoarsely, “Just give me a warning before- ah!”

A flash of white-hot pain pierced through the tension holding her still beneath his hold. If it weren’t for the strength of his hands suddenly gripping her wrist and upper arm she would have jerked her aching arm away from him.

And then he moaned, long and low, and the telltale pull of her blood into the suction of his pale pink lips brought about an intoxicating wave of pleasure that rolled down her spine to gather in the pulsing heat dampening her thin cotton underwear.

“So many fucking pillows,” he cursed, hardly lifting his crimson-tinted lips from her arm to make his complaints known as his hand lifted from her wrist to hastily push them from the couch. Even his voice, dragged through gravel and sweetened with sin, seemed to have the sole purpose of loosening her touch-starved body beneath his electric hold.

In a quick yet cautious jerk that never pulled his mouth from her broken vein, Adam tugged Lily closer, holding her elbow at an almost impossible angle while also managing to center her over his widely spread legs. Her anxiety floated away with the heavy roll of her head on her shoulders. The grind of her pajama shorts over the rapidly hardening bulge in his jeans almost drove her mad with want, too much fabric existed between them to allow the friction she so desperately needed.

“Adam,” she whimpered weakly, collapsing against his chest, any fears that she may be too heavy dashed in the wake of her exhaustion. “Please…”

The blade of his tongue dragged along her upper arm before meeting the sleeve of her t-shirt. The elegant slope of his nose found her sluggish pulse point and breathed in her scent--wet and wanting and so very willing that he couldn’t help but grip the pliant flesh of her hips to push her down onto him with a groan.

“I know, I know. I hear you through the walls, that steady vibration dulling as it slides inside of your sopping wet cunt, your quiet mewls of pleasure curling from your delicate throat.” The barest graze of his teeth above her collarbone could not rouse her from the darkness that pulled her into its depths, neither could the inferno raging within her lower belly at his words. “I want to hear those delicious noises, darling, but not when you’re weak from my feeding. Sleep.”

The urge to tell him to piss off faded with her loss of consciousness, leaving her helpless in the arms of the striking vampire who smelled of musty linens, tangy copper, and oiled wood.


End file.
